No. 25 Cyclones Ready for Oklahoma Rematch

AMES, Iowa - The No. 25 Iowa State volleyball team will be looking to increase its winning streak to six along with avenging one of its two Big 12 losses in 2013 when they host the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. inside Hilton Coliseum.

Fans with a football ticket from the game against TCU earlier in the day can receive $2 tickets at the Hilton Coliseum ticket office.

The match will be shown on Cyclones.TV Powered by Mediacom and on the Cyclones.TV web player. Live stats will be availible for the match, and a live blog will be hosted.

Cyclone Headlines

No. 25 Iowa State will look to extend its winning streak to six, and redeem one of its two Big 12 losses Saturday when the Cyclones host Oklahoma at 5 p.m. in Hilton Coliseum.

The Cyclones picked up a non-conference sweep Tuesday night over South Dakota.

Ciara Capezio had one of the top matches by a freshman in Iowa State history, recording 19 kills at a .593 hitting percentage to go wtih five digs, two aces and a solo block. Jenelle Hudson had her third consecutive double-double with 41 assists and 17 digs and was joined with at least 10 digs by Kristen Hahn (15) and Caitlin Nolan (10). Mackenzie Bigbee had 10 kills.

Kristen Hahn continues to be one of the best liberos in the coutnry. The senior leads the Big 12 and is ranked fourth nationally with 5.84 digs per set.

Hahn won her second consecutive Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week award for her efforts against Texas Tech and Baylor. She has won the DPOW award five times this season and a record 17 times in her career. She recorded 28 digs in ISU’s five-set win over TTU, and then posted 26 in the Cyclones’ sweep of Baylor.

Iowa State has been one of the best serving teams in the country. The Cyclones, as they have for the entirety of the 2013 season, lead the Big 12 in service aces per set (1.78 per set) and are the leaders in total aces in spite of playing the second-fewest sets in the league this year.

Iowa State’s serving is now garnering the attention of the NCAA rankings. Going into this week’s matches, the Cyclones ranked fifth in the country in aces per set. The Big 12’s leading server, Tory Knuth, ranks 13th nationally.

ISU has three of the top six servers in the Big 12 at its disposal. Middle blocker Tory Knuth leads the Big 12 at 0.47 aces per set, Ciara Capezio ranks second at 0.37 aces per set and Caitlin Nolan ranks sixth with 0.29 aces per frame. Knuth and Capezio are first and second, respectively, in aces per set in Big 12 play with Kristen Hahn sixth in conference action.

Five of Iowa State’s six losses have come to teams with an RPI in the top-25. Those losses were to Texas (No. 1), Nebraska (No. 8), San Diego (No. 15), Oklahoma (No. 19), and Illinois (No. 23). At No. 35 in the RPI, St. Mary’s is ISU’s other loss in 2013.

About Oklahoma

The Sooners went through a unique schedule en route to dropping a pair of Big 12 matches last weekend.

OU’s Oct. 30 match at Kansas State was postponed to Sunday due to weather, setting up a stretch of two matches in just over 24 hours for Oklahoma.

That first match came against Texas, which the Sooners lost in four sets. Oklahoma then got swept by Kansas State in Manhattan, dropping their record to 18-6 overall and 6-4 in the Big 12.

Oklahoma has one of the top players in the league in Sallie McLaurin. The middle blocker is the most efficient hitter in the league with a .442 hitting percentage on her 328 kills and leads the conference at 1.35 blocks per set.

The Sooners are one of the strongest back-row teams in the Big 12, ranking only behind Iowa State in digs per set. Libero Taylor Migliazzo is fifth in the league at 3.85 digs per set and outside hitter Keila Rodriguez is ninth at 3.28 digs per set.

The Sooners lead the all-time series 43-29 after defeating the Cyclones in five sets back on Oct. 5.

Kristen Hahn had a career-high 39 digs and Mackenzie Bigbee, Ciara Capezio and Jenelle Hudson all posted double-doubles in the losing effort.